IX THE BITE OF THE TSE-TSE 175 



near the water's edge the tse-tse flies kept flying up 

 from the ground and biting my bare legs, and from 

 the loud slaps behind me 1 knew they were paying 

 similar attentions to my Kafirs. Now, these "flies" 

 were undoubtedly resting on the bare ground, for 

 we were walking, not through bushes, but along 

 the strip of open ground between the forest and the 

 water's edge. The bite of the tse-tse is very sharp, 

 like the prick of a needle, but in a healthy man it 

 causes no swelling or after irritation, like the bite 

 of a midge or a mosquitoe. Speaking generally, 

 the bites of a moderate number of tse-tse flies may 

 be said to have no appreciable effect on a human 

 being. Still, I am of opinion that if one is exposed 

 to the attentions of swarms of these insects for 

 months at a time, the strongest of human beings 

 will find himself growing gradually weaker. Ex- 

 plorers or traders may sometimes be exposed to the 

 bites of great numbers of tse-tse flies for a few days 

 together, but they will soon pass through such 

 districts. Only an elephant hunter, I think, would 

 ever be likely to remain for any considerable period 

 of time in a country where tse-tse flies were very 

 numerous. I cannot think that many Europeans 

 have suffered from tse-tse fly bites as much as I 

 have. In 1874, and again in 1877, I spent the 

 whole of the dry season, from June till November, 

 on the southern bank of the Chobi river, and lived 

 during the greater part of those two seasons in a 

 swarm of tse-tse flies. Up to that time I had had 

 no fever, and my constitution was unimpaired in any 

 way. Towards the end of both those seasons, 

 however, not only I myself but all my Kafir attend- 

 ants became excessively thin, and seemed to be 

 getting rather weak. The natives, too, who lived 

 in the reed beds where there were no tse-tse flies, 

 but who used to come to the southern bank of the 

 river to collect firewood and look at their game 



